“Influencing Transformation”
Maryland’s Plan for Preparing Educators to Implement and Sustain Teacher and Principal Evaluation
Year 4: June 2013-July 2014

The following pages describe how Maryland will proceed to deliver information and training to LEA leadershipaffected by the implementation of Teacher and Principal Evaluation (TPE) during the 2013-2014 school year. Using the cyclical evaluation model that was shared with LEAs in March and the lag data application that was described in April, the TPE Team has crafted this year’s service delivery around the tagline of “Influencing Transformation.” In a state where local autonomy is highly valued, a premium is placed on influence rather than compliance. Over the past year, the TPE Team has employed influence that is based on collaboration, discovery, and change to increasingly bring districts and the state to evaluative commonalties. By replicating this approach,we hope to generate the collective influence that will shift the paradigm and transform evaluation from a subjective and static process to one that is more measurable and dynamic.

To facilitate this transformation, next year’s work has been divided into five “Spheres of Influence.” Each Sphere is designed to provide information and training in advance of the work that is required in each stage of the annual evaluation cycle. Within each Sphere, information is gradually released and training is sequentially translated to leaders, practitioners, and those being evaluated.

As the work becomes more percise,this plan further differentiates topics within user- specific groups. Last year’s monthly TPE Field Test Meeting structure will transition into a Quality Control Group that will convene near the end of each Sphere of Influence to review the success of the current Sphere and recommend direction for the next Sphere. This structure will provide time-sensitive credibility to ongoing implementation and facilitate the eventual outcome assurances that USDE will be seeking.

Technical training meetings and professional development sessions will be built around three constructs:

  • What the LEAs need to learn from the State
  • What the State needs to learn from the LEAs
  • What LEAs and the State can learn from each other

To this end, the state will collect artifacts from the LEAs during each Sphere of Influence. This approachwill inform our work along the way and it should greatly ease the predictable accountability demands that might otherwise all occur at the end of the Project. This continuous information will also help guide and facilitate the independent validation of TPE that WestEd is conducting on Maryland’s behalf.

To further support this effort, the Communication Bulletins has been re-configured to provide information, content, and affirmation of the work that is occurring around TPE.

To futher demonstrateindividual sphere design, Sphere 1 has been broken out into a typical sequence of events and identifies the service delivery roles for each group. It defines the composition of audiences and details how group-specific information sharing, training, and professional development will occur. The desired outcome for the Sphere is included. This outcome will be crirical to the work of the Quality Control Group. Spheres 2-5 event sequence and outcomes follow. Several unique events are included, and some minor anomalies occur with dates and sequences to accommodate existing calendars .

These meetings are designed for professional development personnel in each LEA who are responsible for or preparing their system to train individuals to use SLOs and the instructional Professional Practice components of evaluation. They are scheduled in coordination with the Division of Instruction’s PD Calendar.
These meetings of Executive Officers occur near the beginning of each Sphere of Influence. They will provide practitioner information to the evaluators of principals. Presentations will focus heavily on common evaluation components and the connections that will need to occur between student growth measures, professional practice, Common Core, and principal evaluation. Additional training will focus on how principals may translate these practices to the evaluation of their teachers.
The first Communication Bulletin in each Sphere will focus on current information sharing and the leadership or technical content of the Sphere.
These briefings of LEA Assistant Superintendents occur near the beginning of each Sphere of Influence. They will provide advance information to local curriculum leaders about the content and the delivery of TPE services within each Sphere’s work. Presentations will focus on SLOs and the connections that will need to occur among teacher observation, Common Core, and teacher evaluation.
These briefings of superintendents occur during regularly scheduled PSSAM Meetings at the beginning of each Sphere of Influence. They will provide advance information to superintendents about the content and the delivery of TPE services within each Sphere’s work.
The Quality Control Group will meet near the end of each Sphere to gauge progress and to determine the readiness status of the subsequent Sphere.
The second Communication Bulletin in each Sphere will focus on the quality Controls and assurances that determine the accomplishment of the Sphere objectives and gauge the continuous progress of TPE.
These windows are provided within each Sphere for LEAs to schedule by request, additional localized training on the current topic lines. These sessions will be tailored to meet the needs of the LEA and occur after Executive Officers have met

Teacher and Principal Evaluation Quality Control

During the first two years of the TPE Project, LEAs provided cross-interest teams that participated in monthly TPE Field Test meetings. This structure served the developmental nature of the years’ work well. These neetings were essential to fostering a continous content and process dialogue across LEAs around model design, problem resolution, and communications.

As the expectation for year three focuses on full implementation, the priority of such a group shifts from design to practice and with that shift, gravitates towards fidelity and quality control. With this in mind, the LEA Field Test meetings of the past two years will transition into audience-specific meetings that facilitate professional development and technical assistance and a Quality Control Group that will provide feedback and direction. The Quality Control Group charge requires a diverse membership that includes local and statewide interest groups directly involved with LEAs, superintendents, principals, and teachers. These meetings will be stock-take in nature and near the end of each “Sphere of Influence.” They are intended to gauge the impact of the completed Sphere activities and to identify readiness needs for the subsequent Sphere. This process will close the feedback loop five times duirng the upcoming year. The initial make-up of the quality control group will be as folows:

LEA Points of Contact24

PSSAM2

MSEA2

MASSP1

MAESP1

MSDE TPE Lead1

IHE 2 (at mid-year)